COPD. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) generally describes a group of respiratory tract diseases that are characterized by airflow obstruction or limitation. Diseases associated with COPD include bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, and lung cancer. COPD is the fourth leading cause of death and the second leading cause of major disability among the major diseases in the United States. COPD is projected to become the third leading cause of death by 2020. More than 120,000 deaths from COPD occur annually in the U.S., making this the only disease in the top five killers that has a rising death rate (183% increase in the death rate from 1965 to 2002). The U.S. healthcare economy is facing increasing COPD costs. More than 30 billion dollars are expended per year in medical costs, hospitalization, physician office visits, and other indirect costs (e.g., loss of work days and premature mortality), and these costs continue to escalate as the prevalence of COPD continues to rise.
Tobacco use and the pronounced need for effective education deterrence. Tobacco use is the single largest cause of preventable death in the United States. Most smokers experience one or more negative health consequence, ranging from reduced lung function to premature death. Worldwide, smoking causes about five million deaths every year, and is also responsible for 80-90% of COPD cases and associated diseases. Smoking is easily the most critical and correctable risk factor for COPD. Reducing the number of smokers will reduce the number of COPD sufferers and will provide substantial widespread health benefits.
Cessation of smoking can improve hypertension, decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, reduce suffering from peptic ulcers, and decrease the tendency to develop facial wrinkles. Many people, however, continue to smoke despite being aware of the negative health consequences and the health benefits of quitting. This resistance to cessation is primarily because of the potent addictive properties of tobacco and nicotine, and despite numerous programs and pharmaceutical methods targeted at smoking cessation, tobacco use and addiction remains a formidable health problem.
Therefore, deterring individuals from starting to smoke continues to be an important approach, because more than one million young people begin smoking each year. For many, smoking becomes a lifelong habit, and one in three teens who start smoking today will die from a smoking-related illness. Unfortunately, even the most aggressive anti-smoking advertising and public service announcements have had only a modest effect, and new smokers continue to emerge at an alarming rate. For many potential smokers, simply reading or hearing about a list of adverse physiological changes associated with long-term smoking does not provide adequate insight and understanding to provide for effective deterrence.
There is, therefore, a pronounced need in the art for novel and effective compositions and methods to encourage disease avoidance (e.g., smoking cessation) and/or to provide for adequate education about disease effects (e.g., the effects of smoking) to provide for effective deterrence.